Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear recently announced that PokerStars Flutter Entertainment will pay the state $300 million, ending a decade of litigation over allegedly illegal, untaxed online gambling. Of the total, $75 million will go to the state’s attorneys at Lexington law firm Hurt, Deckard & May.
Beshear’s office said the settlement will be used for education, health care and economic development.
Attorney Jim Deckard and his firm represented the state on a 25 percent contingency fee−meaning it got paid if the state did−under a 2008 contract issued by the administration of Beshear’s father, then-Governor Steve Beshear.
Originally, PokerStars faced a $1.3 billion judgment, but Flutter Entertainment refused to pay and said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, ultimately leading to the lower settlement.
Last year, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled PokerStars was “an illegal internet gambling criminal syndicate” that attracted more than $290 million from about 34,000 Kentucky residents from 2006 through 2011. Online poker is illegal in Kentucky; state law allows lawsuits to recover money lost to such gambling, with tripled damages.
